


when you see it, you'll know

by Tobiko



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, M/M, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-11-13 23:17:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11195532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tobiko/pseuds/Tobiko
Summary: People see color for the first time when they meet their soulmate, but Kimberly Hart meets a boy in kindergarten and only sees one color. And then another boy, another color. Is this how it's supposed to work??





	when you see it, you'll know

The first color Kim sees is blue.

She's walking in to her first day of kindergarten with her mom and as they're walking up the sidewalk a little boy and his dad are hopping towards the building one sidewalk block at a time. The boy turns and meets her eyes and WHAM, suddenly the sky is blazingly bright, the color of the boy's shirt popping in a still otherwise grey world.

Kim and the boy both stagger back. Next thing she knows, the boy is freaking out, clenching his fists tight and looking imploringly at his dad for answers.

Kim already knows about the fact that when you see your soul mate for the first time your world changes, and while the color blue is the most beautiful thing she's ever seen she had sort of thought there would be... more. 

She points up at the sky and says, "It's different now."

Her mom is thrilled, if a little nervous that it happened to Kim so young, and starts asking her questions about what she thinks of the grass, of the color of her shirt, of her face, excited that her daughter sees her in color for the first time. 

Kim shakes her head.

"It's mostly just the sky. And his shirt changed, and his dad's pants," Kim points her finger at the boy.

Her mom's questions become more concerned after that. She starts pointing to different things. Kim nods and shakes her head to indicate what she sees differently, all the while keeping an eye on the boy. When he starts to wail she runs over.

"Are you okay?"

The boy looks at her and says, "Things are different now, why are they different?"

"The sky is pretty now."

The boy looks at her in utter befuddlement. "No, my hands, they're different." He holds out grey hands and Kim doesn't know what he means. "And my dad's hands and his tongue and his lips and YOUR lips and-" the boy goes on and on, frantically and terrified, and the boy's dad scoops him up and they disappear. Kim's mom takes her hand and they walk towards the school because after all it's still Kimberly's first day.

She enters the classroom and immediately locks eyes with a boy with eyes like the sky and WHAM again! There's bright blotches of color everywhere, on the apple on the teachers desk, on the walls, now twice as colorful as ever. Kim rocks back, puts her hand to her face. Her mom grabs her to steady her. 

"Kim? What's happening, baby, tell me."

"More, there's more everywhere."

Her mom brightens, confused still but looking relieved. "I've never heard of it coming in increments before but that must happen sometimes. What do you see now? Do you see mommy's shirt?"

Still, Kim shakes her head.

The teacher has run over to the other boy. She's calmly asking him questions, but the boy's eyes are locked on Kim. He gets up, bypassing the teacher, and says, "I'm Jason." 

"I'm Kim."

"Your shirt is really pretty."

"Thank you. Yours too, it's..." Kim pauses. 

"Red," her mom supplies, looking even more confused now than ever.

"Oh, I didn't know that. What's yours?" 

Kim looks down at her grey shirt. "I don't know." 

"Pink, sweetie, it's pink."

"Pink. I like pink," Jason says, grinning.

Kim can't agree with him because she can't see it, but she says, "Red's so bright. But have you seen the sky?"

Her mom and teacher are exchanging urgent whispers, and Kim doesn't know why her mom looks so upset.

Kim goes to sit with Jason, waving bye to her mom.

When the other boy eventually comes in, Jason nearly falls out of his seat. The boy almost freaks out again but seems to be able to keep it together, and he joins them. Jason is beaming ear to ear, looking outside and inside and babbling, "You were right about the sky!"

The boy sits down across from them anxiously. "I don't know what's happening is this how school starts? My dad tried to explain but he was also very hesitant for some reason and he was talking about meeting special people."

"It's the soulmate change," Kim says. "Only I think it's broken for me because it changed twice now and it's supposed to happen all at once."

Jason nods, turning to the boy. "What's your name?"

"Billy."

"It happened to me twice too, Billy. I don't think it's done."

"Oh, that concerns me," Billy mumbles.

Billy is using a lot of bigger words that Kim doesn't know, but she likes him already. Jason too. Still, she can't help but remember the look on her mom's face.

. 

They hang out for a while, but the colors never change. It's almost harder, now, because Kim can see some and the rest of the world is still blanketed in greys, and she keeps waiting for more but nothing happens. Her parents have intense, whispered talks about it when they think she can't hear them. They look at her funny, and it makes Kim's tummy hurt.

Billy is weird and Kim likes Billy's weirdness, but the other kids don't. They start picking on him and calling him "Billy Crams Tons" about Billy putting crayons up his butt because he got really excited about the pink and red crayons. Jason and Kim become Billy's defenders, but it's not always an easy task. Kim and Jason get in a lot of trouble for a lot of fist fights.

Her parents get more and more worried. They send her to a child psychologist to see if they can figure out why she can only see two colors and some variations of them.

The child psychologist suggests that it might be some sort of fluke, that she's never heard of someone only gaining one color at a time, and not even getting the rest after months. She suggests a change of scenery, and Kim's parents move the family from right in the heart of Angel Grove to a place past the gold mine. The sky is still blue, the stop signs still red. 

Kim's parents start setting her up on more and more play dates with people who aren't Jason and Billy.

Kim loves them, but two colors isn't enough. It makes her restless, frustrated, and she starts to blame them. She starts to pull away, with no small amount of help from her parents, and stops wearing as much blue and red. She starts to try to pretend she doesn't see them. Red and blue. Jason and Billy.

. 

Middle school comes and Kim hasn't talked to Jason or Billy in at least two years. She knows, not because she's paid attention of course not, that Jason doesn't hang out with Billy, either. They all have their own friends. Their own lives.

Zack is in their middle school, and the world sharpens.

Blacks are blacker. Shadows are deeper. Everything takes on a more intense vibe.

Kim hates it. She's scared of it. It takes her ages to figure out that she's not just going crazy, but that she's picked up a whole other color. And it's black, of all colors.

She doesn't tell anyone. Zack doesn't really approach her about it, either. He just smiles when he sees her and leaves her alone.

It's... nice of him to give her space. 

All of her cheerleader friends think she doesn't see color, like all but a few of them. She's been lying so long that it's easy to pretend.

.

She doesn't notice when Billy and Zack become school friends. By high school you can see them hanging out in study hall, but Zack is so infrequently there it hardly matters.

Kim makes small talk with Jason at a football and cheerleader mixer and remembers that his eyes are blue.

Kim dates Ty Fleming. He's her first serious boyfriend and first sexual partner, and she punches his tooth out when he admits that he's seen color ever since he met eyes with Amanda Clark, and he'd just been too afraid to ask her out and went with Kim instead to practice.

She distances herself from her cheerleader friends, who start to talk more about the soulmate change, wondering what it will be like, when it will happen.

She finally snaps one day, and pours her RED slushee all over her friends, staining their BLUE cheerleader skirts a dark purple.

.

The new girl looks Kim in the eyes and she nearly faints when the world EXPLODES with color. Everything fills in. Yellow, green, orange. She looks down and sees she's wearing a pink shirt.

She's never seen pink before.

Kim goes after the girl, but she hightails it out of sight.

Kim finds herself looking for Jason and Billy. 

She finds them, together, and sees them laughing and chatting away as if they've been friends all these years. Kim freezes. She was the one to back away. Away from Billy's kind brown eyes, Jason's tousled blonde hair. She'd never appreciated how beautiful they were.

Jason and Billy see her and smile. Kim doesn't know how they could smile at her when she was so horrible.

"You saw her, too, I take it."

"Isn't the world the most amazing place? Do you finally see pink now? Isn't it the best?"

Kim's eyes fill with tears and she scrubs them away. "I'm sorry."

Jason and Billy wrap her in a hug.

.

They corner Trini together, all four of them.

Zack is able to track her down, after all three of the others came up to him and he immediately went, "Hey, ain't that new crazy girl something?" 

Trini eyes them all warily as they surrounded her.

"What is this, some sort of haze the new girl thing?"

"Don't you see it?" Kim asks, surprised, gesturing to the world and all its colors.

Trini looks at her and then looks away quickly, blushing a cute shade of pink. "Don't know what you're talking about."

"That doesn't make much sense. I saw you and I could _finally_ see colors other than red and pink and black."

"Huh?" Trini asks, frowning at Billy in confusion.

"It's... we don't know what it is. But it's been like that forever. Since we were kids," Kim explains nervously. "And now... now it's _everything_. It's gotta be. I've never seen so... much."

"Like I said, don't know what you're talking about."

"Take your time. We've waited before," Jason says gently. 

Guilt surges in Kim.

"And the world wasn’t near as pretty last time we did!" Zack jokes.

"Leave me alone!" Trini yells, and she takes off.

Kim feels like she’s being torn in two.

.

“She doesn’t want us.”

“It’s probably very startling.”

“She doesn’t _like_ us.”

“She doesn’t know us.”

Kim and Billy lay on the grass, staring up at the blue sky. He’s been marveling at it for days now. Kim has seen it since she was five, thanks to him, so she feels it’s more than fair to lay with him and admire it for a while.

“It fucking _hurts_.”

“Yeah. But you can live with it. We did.” 

Kim’s gut twists. “I’m sorry,” she apologizes for what must be the hundredth time by now.

“Oh, no, Kim- I didn’t mean it as an accusation or anything. It was hard and it was very limiting to only see so much. You said your parents were upset, too, and parent emotions will definitely influence a little kid. Really, it’s okay, and we’re all together now.”

“Not all of us.”

Billy turns to look at Kim. “When Jason started talking to me again last year, it was like the best thing that had ever happened to me. I was so happy. I think I honestly thought I could fly, the feeling was that big, and I _know_ I can’t fly because it’s physically impossible for a person to fly. Now it feels almost perfect. Almost complete, right? She’ll feel it. She’s just scared, like you were. It happens. Luckily most of us have dealt with it before. Pretty much you’re the only one who hasn’t been the rejected party.”

Kim groans into her hands. “It sucks being the rejected party.” 

Billy pats Kim quickly on the arm. “You’ll survive.” 

.

Trini approaches Kim and Kim nearly bursts with happiness, but she contains it to make sure she doesn’t scare Trini away.

Trini glares at Kim. “Why did it have to be you, of all people?”

Kim is alarmed. “What?”

“To make the world go all… you know.” 

Kim’s heart leaps, because it’s Trini’s first acknowledgement that she sees the colors now, too.

“It wasn’t just me, it was Zack and Billy and Ja-“

“No, it was you. Sure, they added some shit. Gave me a heck of a headache, too, didn’t know what was going on. But then I saw _you_ and-“ Trini stops, shoving her hands in her pockets and pursing her lips.

Kim knows what she means. The boys had been one thing, adding layers to her world, but Trini… Trini had made the world _whole_.

“I guess I was the last one you saw, so that’s why you got the full blast from me.”

“But why’d you have to be a girl?”

Kim neck heats up. Oh, was that the problem? Was _she_ the problem?

“I’m not supposed to like girls,” Trini grumbles. 

“… All five of us are… _something_. So maybe you don’t even have to- to hang out with me much, maybe it’s just sort of like a hodgepodge and you can be with the guys more-“ Even as Kim is saying it, it hurts. She wants to hang out with Trini more than anything, it feels like something she’s wanted her entire _life_. But if Trini doesn’t want her-

“No.”

Kim’s brow knits in confusion. “No?”

“I’m not taking those stupid boys and losing out on _you_. That would be the world’s biggest fucking mistake.” Trini gives Kim a shy grin.

“O-oh.” 

“Just, um, don’t give up on me… if it takes me some time,” Trini shuffles her feet.

Kim beams at Trini.

“Never.”

.

The first time Trini lets Kim hold her hand, Kim knows what Billy meant about flying.

The first time they make out Kim is pretty sure she could take on an entire army single handedly. 

.

Kim and Trini stumble upon Billy and Jason kissing in Billy’s garage one day. At Kim’s surprise, Billy questions, “You didn’t know Jason and I have been doing this since before Trini showed up? I didn’t think we were very discreet.” 

Kim had to laugh in surprise and delight. 

Kim and Trini start going on double dates with Jason and Billy.

.

Kim worries about how Zack fits in to all this. He’s their best friend, more than that, he’s family, but he’s not _with_ anyone in any intimate sense. Kim doesn’t want Zack to feel left out when she loves him so dearly that she would die for him.

One day she mentions this to Zack and he laughs his goddamn head off. “Kim, did you honestly think the only kinds of soul mates are romantic? Were you planning on getting some from Jason and Billy anytime soon? Nah, just because I’m not boning any of you doesn’t make you any less _mine_ , you know?”

Kim thinks of Billy and Jason and Zack, her boys, and she gets it. 

“So do you, like, need any of us to set you up with someone?” 

Zack rolls his eyes. “Please. I do fine for myself. Y’all would just slow me down.”

. 

Kim takes Trini to her secret place, a cliff up in the hills of the gold mine. She used to go there to stare at the blue water, watch the red-wing blackbirds nest and sing. Now she can see it for all of its beauty.

They swim and laugh, spread out their purple and blue towels and stare into the green leaves ahead. Kim hooks her thumb into the yellow bikini bottom that Trini is wearing as Trini plays with the pink string of Kim’s swimsuit top. 

“Kim?”

“Yeah?”

“I’d rather not fool around on the ground in a forest.”

Kim and Trini giggle and make their way back to Kim’s car. They go back to Kim’s house.

Their first time is intimate and intense, though it’s not perfect. There’s fumbling, a few mistakes, but they collapse together in an exhausted and satisfied heap. Trini burrows against Kim’s side and Kim has never seen her room in such vivid color before.

“Do you think the boys will notice something different about us?" 

“Those dorks? They wouldn’t notice the colors of their own shirts if we didn’t mention it to them.”

The boys, as it turns out, did notice.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by bisexualpowerranger on Tumblr, had to write this little oneshot!


End file.
